SUNDAY WITH CASSANDRE

After grieving the loss of the Hawkeyes on Saturday, we needed church on Sunday. We already had tickets to see Cassandre on Sunday afternoon, but were delighted to have her sing in church. They advertise that she has the voice of an angel, and they're telling the truth! She's also a lovely young lady who is married to one of the Haygoods.

It's amazing that she can pretend to be her Aunt Irma and look more like Dolly Parton. She sure enjoys the part.

We were in the first row, so the lights were bright.

The first part of the show, she sang all different types of music and the second half was Christmas music. Here's Aunt Irma again-she came down and sang to Don.

There were two blind men beside me-I felt sorry for them that they couldn't see how pretty she is. They did enjoy her voice! So did we!

SDC LIGHTS AND PARADE

Silver Dollar City is known for having 4 million Christmas lights. We didn't count them, but I'll bet they're right!

Every 15 minutes, the large tree puts on a light show with many different colors and patterns.

Twice a night they have a light parade-here are a few floats.

Each float is led up the street by a person holding a light for the driver to follow.

This one has a snowman that spins in the globe.

It's a great place for children and "kids at heart" and certainly gets you in the mood for the holidays!

SILVER DOLLAR CITY

We spent the rest of Thursday at Silver Dollar City enjoying the shows and craftsman and Christmas buffet. Our favorite show was A Christmas Carol-the singing was beautiful and the acting was great-even Scrooge was enjoyable!

The Christmas Story was also done very well.

If you're looking for a Santa, we found a great one in one of the shops-of course, you'd need a large space and a lot of money!

It's always fun watching the craftsman make their creations. Here's a glass bliwer and a candy maker.



It's a fun place!

YAKOV

Last Thursday morning, we spent a delightful two hours, laughing, at Yakov's wonderful humor about Russia and the U.S. I'm sure you'll remember his favorite phrase, "What a country!" He has a very nice theater on top of one of the mountains.

Most of the show was about Christmas, but my favorite part was when Yakov pretended to be the President. He was hilarious!

During the intermission, he posed for pictures. Don walked up to get a close-up, and I didn't look at the pictures until I put them on the computer. I was surprised to see the two gals from Texas that we talked to at Silver Dollar City on Wednesday morning. Mulert was his usual alert self-he didn't even recognize them!

Everyone was surprised when the dancing snowman took off his head and it was Yakov.

After the show, he goes out in the lobby and signs autographs. I took this picture because it shows an example of his beautiful artwork. I ended up buying a sweatshirt of this one. His creations are all over the place, and worth taking time to see. Notice-each one has a little hanging seat on it in the right hand lower corner with the artist signing it.

A trip to the bathroom held one last laugh. In each stall is a self portrait-you can pull the little curtain if you don't want him to watch! What a guy!

MORE VETERAN'S DAY AT SDC

It was interesting to hear Ollie's side of the conversation with Steve, Gretchen and Brian on Fox & Friends. He was a big hit, because everyone in the crowd of about a hundred, was a Vet, or related to one.


Ollie came over and talked to our group with Tony, and shook hands.

We had some people near us that had interesting stories. One man had been on the Pueblo and this lady had a son in the Pentagon, very near where the plane struck it on 9-11. He was lucky to live, but still is upset about it.

I just noticed that Ollie is currently on TV with a bunch of Vets down at Bass Pro Shop at Branson Landing. He's been here for a week, and he spends all his time talking to the Vets.)
Back to this morning-When we left, it was light, and we could see the decorations better.

We hurried home and got to see the last segment of the SDC Singers on TV.

Another one of those educational, interesting experiences! And-we have free tickets for tomorrow (actually $20 for charity). It saves us a bunch-the normal price for the two of us is $105 or $65 on Senior day. Now, all we have to do is catch up on sleep! (Note to Dave-sorry you missed us-we waved!)

VETERAN'S DAY

Yesterday, I was checking the Silver Dollar City sight, and saw that Fox & Friends was going to run remotes from SDC and interview Ollie North this morning, since there are over 50,000 Veterans in Branson, and it's Veteran's Day. They offered free, one-day tickets for anyone who wanted to come and watch them televise from SDC-all you had to do, was bring a $10 Christmas gift for a child, and be there before 5:00 a.m. So, we did it. We got up at 3:45, because we were expecting fog, and it's a few miles out of town in the mountains. As you can see, it was dark, so the lights were pretty.

It was interesting watching the producers and local reporter preparing for the local and national segments on Fox & Friends.

They started with the Silver Dollar City Singers, who sang patriotic songs in front of the huge tree that changes colors.

Tony Orlando was the first star to arrive. He started the Veteran's celebration about sixteen years ago with 600 Vet's.

Others arrived-Yakov (in the blue shirt), Moe Bandy (in the cowboy hat), and Ollie North.

VISIT WITH DAVE GRUHN

Yesterday, we took a drive up to Warsaw, Missouri, to see Dave Gruhn, who used to live in Decorah, but more important-he was one of the members of the infamous Happy Joe's coffee group! Mulert used the GPS, but got excited, when we got part way down the road to his house, and called him. Here we are being led down the lane.

He lives on Lake of the Ozarks. This is a view from his screened in porch.

We met several of his interesting neighbors and certainly understand why he likes living there.
We went in town to a great little barbecue place with homemade bread-it was delicious!





Dave and Don in front of the restaurant.

We had a very nice visit. As the Decorah people know, we were treated to some very interesting and humorous stories, and Don was able to give him a few computer tips. Thanks Dave, it was great to see you!